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Plug In 2014: BMW i DC Fast Charger is poised to change the EV game

It looks like it's just a blue box on a pole, but BMW's new i DC Fast Charger represents a much bigger deal than just the lowest-cost SAE Combo Charger on the market. BMW sees it as the key to getting more drivers into electric vehicles. As Robert Healey, the EV infrastructure manager for BMW of North America told us, "For [BMW], the future is clear. DC charging really is the future." "DC charging really is the future." – Robert Healey, BMW We spoke with Healey at the Plug-In 2014 conference in San Jose, CA last week about the promise of the new $6,548 DC fast charger. "The strategy is pretty simple," he said. "BMW wants to get as many DC Fast Chargers out there as possible. We're not in the charging business, we're in the EV business and to support the sales of our cars, we have identified some key areas: home charging, public charging and assistant services for EV drivers." That's why the first of the new blue boxes will be installed at the 285 i dealers in the US, many of whom already installed the cables needed for fast charging when they put in the Level 2 chargers, said BMW's Cliff Fietzek, manager of connected eMobility. Even if you haven't gotten a site ready for a DC fast charger, the installation costs for BMW's unit are lower because you don't need to pour concrete (for the wall unit) and the SAE Combo connector plug costs "significantly" less than the competing CHAdeMO plug, Fietzek said. One minor drawback to the BMW DC fast charger compared to the more expensive traditional, full-size DC fast chargers is that the 24kW BMW fast charger allows you to charge to 80 percent full in 30 minutes, while the bigger units can do the job in 20. The good news for EV drivers with SAE Combo cars (which, in the US, means the Chevy Spark EV and the VW e-Golf) is that any driver with a Combo plug car and a ChargePoint card will be able to use the BMW stations. In fact, BMW is talking with both GM and VW on where to install SAE Combo stations in the US so that there is minimal duplication of effort. In other places, BMW is working with other automakers, including Nissan, which uses a competing fast charging standard. "In Great Britain, we are installing triple chargers, the CHAdeMO, SAE Combo and the high-power, three-phase AC that can go up to 43 kW to support the Renault [EVs] and others," Fietzek said.

Bristol returning under BMW power

BMW has had its hand in reviving once-great British automakers, and now its playing its part in the rebirth of another. That marque is Bristol Cars, the automotive offshoot of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Bristol hand-made luxury sports cars between 1945 and 2011 when it went belly-up, and ever since there's been an effort to bring it back. That effort is now picking up steam, and is set to launch later this year – marking the 70th anniversary of the marque's founding. It's tentatively known as Project Pinnacle, and while future versions are slated to pack plug-in hybrid power developed in collaboration with Bristol's sister company Frazer-Nash (which is now focused on battery technology), the first new Bristol in a dozen years is slated to pack BMW power. Details accompanying the announcement below are few and far between, but one way or another, it won't be the first time BMW will have played a part in breathing new life into a British automaker. The Bavarian company of course revived Mini, and made Rolls-Royce what it is today, but was also was briefly the custodian of Rover, Land Rover and Bentley, and has been linked to a potential (if unrealized) effort to bring back Triumph. Its role in Bristol's rebirth under Project Pinnacle may be less involved than all of those, but at very least we'll know that the new British GT will have a proper engine under the hood. BRISTOL CARS CONFIRMS POWERTRAIN FOR 70th ANNIVERSARY PROJECT PINNACLE • First new Bristol car in more than a decade to feature BMW powerplant • High performance powertrain earmarks resumption of the history between Bristol, Frazer-Nash and BMW dating back to 1930s London, England, June 2015 – Iconic British carmaker, Bristol Cars, makes the second in a series of announcements today about its first new car in more than a decade, codenamed Project Pinnacle. Project Pinnacle, which is set for launch later this year, will be a 70th anniversary celebration model, referencing Bristol Cars' rich heritage and executed as a modern take on the best of British craftsmanship, engineered to excite and satisfy as a high performance Bristol car. Bristol Cars is deeply proud to announce that the machinery underpinning this high performance new vehicle will be a BMW powerplant. The result will a sublime British sportscar with characteristics cultured uniquely for the first new Bristol since 2004.

Gus Van Sant casts the BMW i8 in soft light

BMW has spent the better part of a century building its reputation with fossil-burning transportation, but now it's banking heavily on the success of its new i family of electric vehicles. In order to succeed, it will need to sell examples of the i3, but sell the idea with the i8. And in order to do so, it is going to need some out-of-the-box promotional thinking. And that's just what it seems to have done with this latest campaign of television commercials.
The series of three (or at least that's how many have been released thus far) ads wax more poetic than most of the car ads we've seen. But while they might skimp on the technical details, they don't skip over the talent. The videos are the work of Oscar-nominated director Gus Van Sant, the cinematic artist best known for films like Good Will Hunting, Milk and Finding Forrester.
Van Sant has also solicited the voices of Sam Hazeldine (Caleb from Resurrection), Sting's daughter Mickey Sumner (Sophie from Frances Ha) and Michael Pitt (Jimmy from Boardwalk Empire), but doesn't hide them behind the microphone in the recording studio. Instead they serve as the face of Bavaria's new hybrid sports car, and the results are rather stunning. See for yourself in the trio of videos below.